2007 Best of the Best

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• SPIRITED SIDEWALK CONTEST
  Plainfield South, Pam Brand; (815) 577-5950; pbrand@learningcommunity202.org
  During Home Coming Week, Clubs, Class Council and Activities can buy a sidewalk square along the walk to the (FB) stadium for $20. We (Student Council) provide the exterior/colored paints & brushes and clubs design a Homecoming-related theme to paint. The painting stays on the sidewalk until we prime and repaint the square white.
• GRANDPARENTS/SENIOR DAY
  Highland Park, Lesa Friedrich; (224) 765-2370; lfriedrich@dist113.org
  Held the day before Thanksgiving break. Senior students are invited to bring their Grandparent(s) to school. Grandparents attend for 5 periods which include an opening ceremony, attending classes, eating lunch, and attending a fine arts program. Other activities including doing a family tree and playing Bingo are also part of the day.
• STAFF/STUDENT VARIETY SHOW
  Vernon Hills, Leslie Nardini & Peggy Cope; (847) 932-2000; leslie.nardini@d128.org
  A staff member(s) work with a student(s) to perform at Variety Show. Sold out performance our 1st year. We have over 30 staff members involved this year with students. Theme of show is for a cause. Proceeds donated to that cause.
• SEND ME YOUR CHAMPION – ICEBREAKER
  Naperville Central, Lynne Nolan; (630) 420-6649; lnolan@naperville203.org
  This is a great “icebreaker”. Divide your groups into 7-10 smaller groups. If you have 35 kids, do groups of 5. If you have 70 kids, do groups of 10. Tell each group that they will need to discover amongst themselves, who is their Champion for a topic – such as “Who has the most pets?” Each group will send a Champion to the front of the room. From these 7, you determine the overall winner. This is really fun! Each group is invested since their small group Champion is at the front.
• GERSHWIN THE TURKEY
  West Aurora, D. Letzter; (630) 301-5517; dletzter@sd129.org
  Gershwin says…
  A “mailbox decorated as a turkey (Gershwin). Small cards (business card sized) w/ Gershwin says: …. To: From: Kids/staff encouraged to write a Thank You note to faculty or staff. These will be delivered by Ambassadors to staff, via mailboxes.
• PEPPY PRIMARY
  Lyons Township, Sherman/Nolan; (708) 579-7444; tiasherman@lths.net, bnolan@lths.net
  Our Poms team publicizes a one day “Workshop” w/a holiday theme that brings in about 200 2nd though 4th grades from the community. They make T-shirts, learn dance moves, get poms, break down into groups, learn a routine, eat lunch and do a final performance for the parents at the end. The kids love it and the Pom students run the entire event, taking pride in their work while raising money. Each girl pays $25 to attend. There is little cost to us , so we profit quite a bit.
• GIRL TALK LOCK-IN
  Proviso East, Risa Caudle; (708) 259-8630; rcaudle@pths209.org
  Overnighter with students who participate in various chaperoned, monitored and supervised activities, sports and games. Competitive and noncompetitive activities included.
• MUSTANG FURY
  Downers Grove South, Ruth Kadlee/Jenny Davis; (630) 795-8518
  Activities Fair with booths for 1 week in early September, to promote clubs/student activities for the whole school.
• FACULTY DODGE BALL
  Stevenson, Tim Tomaso; (847) 634-4000; ttomaso@district125.k12.il.us
  Departments organize a coed team (8-10 players) to compete against the other department teams on the last weekend before winter break. Games start at noon utilizing intramural equipment to play the games. Prizes are awarded to the winning team. Uniforms are recommended not required. We then go to the closest pizza place for food and drinks. Great time for everyone involved. A real morale booster!
• BLACK & WHITE BALL
  St. Charles North, Erin Fasbender; (630) 443-3370; erin.fasbender@d303.org
  Students organize an off-site dance w/hors’doerves and desserts, a live jazz band and semi-formal “cocktail attire”. Students are encouraged to wear all black & white and pay around $25 to attend. Because the event is often held at a local restaurant, we restrict how many students can attend and limit sales to Jr./Sr. only (around 300). It’s a special night where kids dance in a “classy way” and act very “grown up."
• HOMECOMING INITIATIVE
  Hinsdale South; Tracy McDonald (630) 468-4528; tmcdonald@hinsdale86.org
  Committee members get a free ticket if they put in 5 hours of time and 2 tickets for 10 hours.
• “LET ME IN!”
  Bartlett, Meghan Stanley; (630) 372-4700 ext. 4762; meghanstanley@u-46.org
  The Varsity Basketball Coaches wanted a “uniformed” student section and earn money at the same time. Students purchase the special design shirts for $25 and are able to get into the games for free. They also have a punch card to record the number of games they attend. Prizes will be awarded to the students who attend the most games.
• RUSH
  Downers Grove South, K. Bormann; (630) 795-8500; kbormann@csd.99.org
  Freshman transition program
• ACTIVITY EXECUTIVE BOARD
  Thornton Fractional South, Becky Szuba; (708) 585-2062; bszuba@tfd215.org
  • In September, each club can send the President (or other representative) to a leadership training.
  • The leadership training was s ½ day in-school workshop. We hired Dave Cronkite, a leadership consultant to run it. He is a retired middle school counselor who was a student council sponsor for his entire teaching career. He was the President of the IAJHSC (Illinois Association of Junior High Student Councils) and he still serves as a senior counselor on the IAJHSC summer leadership camp staff. He has also served as mentor for students at U of I who are going through their new leadership program. Contact info: Cronkanuk@aol.com. He is innovative and worked very well with the kids.
  • Students were trained on parliamentary procedure, project planning and brainstorming. He also did many teambuilding activities. (He will design a program to fit your needs at a reasonable price).
  • The group that went through training became the Activity Executive Board. We meet once a month with a set agenda. We continue to do teambuilding activities, but also help keep continuity within all the activities. The kids can give club updates regarding upcoming fundraisers, service projects, or other events. It’s a great venue to solicit support and get ideas for planning programs and activities.
  • PROS: an increase in club participation; more school spirit; students are supporting other student groups; students that normally wouldn’t interact are working together to plan events; it almost serves as a “leadership academy”; we problem solve, brainstorm, project plan, etc.; it has made many aspects of my job easier and it’s been an enjoyable experience for me to watch the kids enhance their leadership skills; the students enjoy giving their input. They know their opinion is valued.
• MAKE A DIFFERENCE ASSEMBLY
  Niles North, Kevin Monahan; (847) 626-2401; kevmon@niles219.org
  All of our seasonal assemblies (Fall, Winter, Spring) revolve around our sports teams. But every other year we have a “Make a Difference” Assembly in which we recognize our many teams, clubs, and even classes that have done various service activities throughout the year. It also serves as a promo for our “School Chest” activities. School Chest is our annual selection of a charity that we donate our major fundraising to. It culminates with a Dance Marathon at the end of the year.
• KING OF THE COUCH
  Lake Park, Aimee Allison; (630) 295-5382; aallison@lphs.org
  Students submit a YouTube video for school spirit and the winning video is shown at the pep rally and the winner sits on a couch at a football game.
• FROSH BBQ WITH A NEW TWIST
  Lake Park, Pat Buchenot; (630) 295-5312; pbuchenot@lphs.org
  • Free food
  • Pep rally
  • Dance
  • Parent info sessions
  • Skits & more
• DANCING WITH THE STAFF
  Prospect, Lyn Scolaro; (847) 718-5400; lyn.scolaro@d214.org
  • Based on “Dancing with the Stars
  • All money goes to Charity
  • Teachers choose to dance with another staff member’s significant other
  • Dance partners are paired up with 2 members of Orchesis
  • Orchesis performs an opening number
  • The staff does a group dance
  • A panel of three judges and random audience members are asked to vote
  • Of the dancers, three semi finalists are selected to perform in the finals
  • A trophy is awarded to the winning couple
• SPRING FLING
  Adlai E. Stevenson, Jane Klewin; (847) 634-4000; jkelwin@district125.k12.il.us
  On the last day of school students engage in a variety of sports and social activities (volleyball, dodge ball, basketball, softball, Ultimate Frisbee, bean bag toss, dunk tank, Marines obstacle course and airbrush tattoo artist). There is free food, free ice cream, free pop & water. All culminates with a student generated film fest in the evening. Students create their own teams and their own T-shirts. The Student Council committee heads and organizes the brackets of play. Students work with Building & Grounds, Security, Maintenance and the Administration to insure a safe and fun event. There was no fee for participation and over 1000 attended.
• HERSEY WORLD CUP SOCCER
  John Hersey High School, John Novak; (847) 718-4800; john.novak@d214.org
  Our DECA club has organized a soccer tournament for all of our international clubs. Polish, Greek, Latin American, French, and several other clubs participated in this after school event. Teams were put in a bracket, and 15 minute games were played. This was the 1st year, and over 200 students participated. Plans are being made to expand the tournament, with each group getting T-shirts and making the event last over several days.
• YOU’VE BEEN RAKED
  Minooka Community, Alexa Schlosser; (815) 467-2140 ext. 317; aschlosser@mchs.net
  •Have Student Council members meet at the school on Saturday and bring rakes from home. We provide the transportation and the leaf bags. We group up and go around the community raking leaves for people who can’t do it themselves, or don’t have the time.
  •An idea for large groups is to split them up and have a race to see which group can fill the most bags or rakes the most yards over 3 hours.
  •Have fun while raking.
  •When finished with a yard, place a sign on the edge of the lawn stating “You’ve Been Raked by MCHS Student Council”
• CHRISTMAS CARDS FOR THE COMMUNITY
  Bradley-Bourbonnais Community, Tara Pombert & Ruth Brady; (815) 937-3707; tpombert@bbchs.k2.il.us or rbrady@bbchs.k12.il.us
  This is a Student Council sponsored activity open to ALL students in the school. During study halls, students are invited to come spread “Holiday Cheer” to those in the nursing homes. We supply paper, stickers, markers, cotton balls, glue, etc. and have students make Christmas cards. We serve cookies & punch while playing Holiday music. We deliver to all area nursing homes spreading cheer to over 750 people.
• 3 POINT SHOOT OUT
  Bremer, Amy Langelend; (708) 371-3600 ext. 2204; alangelend@bhsd228.com
  •Every winter sport chooses a representative to shoot baskets.
  •They have 1 minute to shoot from a rack of balls from 3 different marked spots.
  •There is also a money ball at each location.
  •Faculty representatives also participate.
  •Top student – top faculty compete again for the championship.
• MUSIC IN THE HALLS
  Oak Lawn Community, Jeff Krohn; (708) 741-5645; jkrohn@olchs.org
  Three days a week students play music in the halls between passing periods. The music is played for 3 minutes, 30 seconds with a warning of “You have 30 seconds to get to class” It helps students to move along in the halls and helps to reduce tardies to class by acting as a tardy warning….kind of musical chairs, but on a larger scale.
• MATCH-MAKER
  Minooka Community, Chrissy Fosdick; (815) 467-2140; cfosdick@mchs.net
  •We are planning to do a match-maker activity around Valentine’s Day.
  •Students fill out a survey of silly questions to describe their personality, e.g. “If you were a fruit, what would you be?”…
  •You send all of the surveys (taken by the entire student population) to the company and they return to you a set of compatibility matches for each student (30 most compatible males, females…30 least compatible, etc.)
  •You can sell these results to the students around Valentine’s Day!
  •Several companies do this matching. One example is www.data-match.com.
• COURT ELECTIONS
  Bradley-Bourbonnais Community, Ruth Brady/Tara Pombert; (815) 937-3707 ext. 3257; rlbrady@bbchs.k12.il.us
  Due to the low voting numbers this year we changed our Courts for Homecoming and Turnabout to Seniors only. Students interested in being on the Court must pick up a petition and get 25 signatures from classmates. All students are then placed on the ballot where only Seniors may vote for the top six for the court. Those chosen for the court will run for Homecoming Queen or Turnabout King and will be voted on by all who attend the dance. By using this method we had a diverse group of students participating and voting was increased to 50% of the class.
• MR. BENGAL “LÉI SALO”
  Oak Forest, Lori Shemoski; (708) 687-0500; lshemoski@bhsd228.com
  During Mr. Bengal (our “Beauty Pageant” for Senior guys) we advertise and fund raise at the same time by selling leis w/ the Mr. Bengal contestant picture stapled to it. Student can buy them for $.50 - $1.00 each to support their choice(s) for Mr. Bengal. We do it the day before to advertise the night of Mr. Bengal.
• CHRISTMAS CARDS FOR THE COMMUNITY
  Bradley-Bourbonnais Community, Tara Pombert & Ruth Brady; (815) 937-3707; tpombert@bbchs.k2.il.us or rbrady@bbchs.k12.il.us
  This is a Student Council sponsored activity open to ALL students in the school. During study halls, students are invited to come spread “Holiday Cheer” to those in the nursing homes. We supply paper, stickers, markers, cotton balls, glue, etc. and have students make Christmas cards. We serve cookies & punch while playing Holiday music. We deliver to all area nursing homes spreading cheer to over 750 people.
• morP
  Deerfield, (224) 632-3020; Brian Verisario; bverisario@dist113.org
  Dance just for the Juniors at both Deerfield High School and Highland Park High School. Very casual night. No dates, no limos. Jeans & T-shirt kind of night. Had a D.J., DVD recording studio, henna artist, temp tattoo artist, caricature artist and a photo booth. We didn’t do tickets, but glow in the dark bracelets. We held the function at a recreation center between the two schools.

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